California legislators on Friday revealed more about a proposal for a statewide ban on plastic bags.

The proposal would ban plastic bags at supermarkets, liquor stores and pharmacies by 2016.

Here are five factors driving the urgent need for better global water efficiency.

1. Population trends translate into bursting demand

The United Nations figures that 1.2 billion people (about one-fifth of the world's population) are challenged by water scarcity

Today, McDonald’s announces that it will begin purchasing verified sustainable beef in 2016, the first step on a quest to purchase sustainable beef for all of its burgers worldwide.

The land management initiative led the company to commit to source-only palm oil certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil by 2015. All of its fish worldwide come from fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. McDonald’s requires its suppliers to source 100 percent Rainforest Alliance certified coffee for its espresso in the United States, for all of its coffee in Australia and New Zealand and all of it in Europe except for decaf.

Langert says McDonald’s isn’t yet ready to commit to a specific quantity it would purchase in 2016, or when it might achieve its “aspirational goal” of buying 100 percent of its beef from “verified sustainable sources.” (The company only will say, “We will focus on increasing the annual amount each year.”) Realistically, it could take a decade or more to achieve the 100-percent goal.

Wilmar International yesterday signed a deal with consumer goods giant Unilever, which has promised that 100 percent of the palm oil used in its supply chain would by fully traceable by the end of 2014.

Wilmar controls 45 percent of the world's palm oil market

The company has already taken steps to preserve high conservation value forests and peatland on its own concessions, although campaigners have been quick to point out that deal covers just a sliver of the palm oil it trades.

6 ways Apple's new mothership will be ultra green

1. Fruit trees

The new plan will transform an existing site almost entirely covered with buildings and asphalt into a landscape featuring almost 7,000 trees – including the apple, apricot, cherry and plum fruit trees that made San Jose's orchards thrive long before silicon was invented.

A new study from the Colorado-based Climate Accountability Institute suggests that 90 companies are responsible for almost two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

The top 90 emitters include 50 investor-owned energy companies like BP, ExxonMobil and Shell, along with 31 state-owned companies and some nation-states themselves. 83 of the 90 are coal, oil and gas producers and the remaining seven are cement manufacturers.

Based on studies published during the past several years, the IPCC found that in order to have at least a 66 percent chance of limiting global warming to, or below, 3.6°F above pre-industrial levels, no more than 1 trillion tonnes of carbon can be released into the atmosphere from the beginning of the industrial era through the end of this century.

Ford and Microsoft were among investors in a $1 billion green bond launched last week to support "climate smart" investments in emerging markets.

Proceeds of IFC green bonds are used for private sector investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency and other areas that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as installing solar and wind power capacity and providing financing for technology that helps produce energy more efficiently.

IFC said in a statement that the bond transaction, jointly led by BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Crédit Agricole CIB and SEB, was heavily oversubscribed and sized to address the demand from "an increasing number of investors interested in climate-related opportunities."

Millions upon millions of games, dolls, trinkets and other baubles are churned out for the entertainment of children around the world.

As the titans that make them start considering their complete environmental footprints, they are making big strides in protecting the planet's natural resources, albeit by disparate approaches.

by 2020 Hasbro plans to reduce waste to landfill by 50 percent, energy consumption by 25 percent, GHG emissions by 20 percent and water consumption by 15 percent.

Los Angeles is considering banning the cultivation and sale of genetically modified organisms. If it does, the second-largest U.S. city would become the country's largest GMO-free zone.

Two LA city councilmen on Friday introduced a motion that would ban the growth, sale and distribution of genetically engineered seeds and plants.

The motion would not affect the sale of food containing genetically modified ingredients.

Obama’s top environment adviser, Heather Zichal, stepping down after 5 years at White House

Zichal plans to leave the White House within a few weeks. The White House hasn’t announced who will replace her.

For just a $160 price increase, GM is boosting the fuel economy of its 2014 midsize car, the Chevy Malibu, by 12 percent.

An international panel of scientists has found with near certainty that human activity is the cause of most of the temperature increases of recent decades, and warns that sea levels could conceivably rise by more than three feet by the end of the century if emissions continue at a runaway pace.

“It is extremely likely that human influence on climate caused more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperature from 1951 to 2010,” the draft report says. “There is high confidence that this has warmed the ocean, melted snow and ice, raised global mean sea level and changed some climate extremes in the second half of the 20th century.”

The draft comes from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of several hundred scientists that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, along with Al Gore. Its summaries, published every five or six years, are considered the definitive assessment of the risks of climate change, and they influence the actions of governments around the world. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent on efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions, for instance, largely on the basis of the group’s findings.

Tungsten, in particular, is in high demand.

The dark, heat-resistant and super-hard metal is inside the engines of some of the most popular cars in the world. It’s used for screens of computers, phones, tablets and televisions. It helps mobile phones vibrate when they ring. Semiconductor makers use the metal to provide insulation between microscopic layers of circuitry.

Tiger Hill rises above the rain forest in an area ruled by armed FARC fighters more than 220 kilometers (137 miles) from the nearest road, town or police station.